Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln

The Project Gutenberg EBook of Abraham Lincoln, by Rev. T. M.
Eddy This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
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Title: Abraham Lincoln A Memorial Discourse
Author: Rev. T. M. Eddy
Release Date: June 9, 2006 [EBook #18540]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ASCII
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LINCOLN ***

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ABRAHAM LINCOLN.
A
MEMORIAL DISCOURSE,

By Rev. T. M. Eddy, D. D.,

Delivered at a
Union Meeting, held in the Presbyterian Church,
Waukegan Illinois,
Wednesday, April 19, 1865,

The day upon which the funeral services of the president were
conducted in Washington, and observed throughout the loyal states as
one of mourning.

Published by request.

Chicago:
Printed at the Methodist Book Depository.

Charles Philbrick, Printer.
1865.

CORRESPONDENCE.
Waukegan, April 19, 1865.
Rev. T. M. Eddy, D. D.:

The undersigned having listened with much interest and profit to your
eloquent eulogy this day spoken before the citizens of this town, upon
the Life and Death of President Lincoln, unite in requesting a copy for
publication. We feel that much good would come to the community
from a calm perusal of the thoughts so fitly uttered on the occasion.
H. W. Blodgett, D. Brewster, C. W. Upton, W. H. P. Wright, W. J.
Lucas, C. L. Wright, C. G. Buell, M. M. Biddlecew, P. W. Edwards, A.
P. Yard, B. S. Kennicott, Wm. C. Tiffany, S. S. Greenleaf, R. Douglas,
Joseph Mallon, James Y. Cory.

Editorial Rooms, Northwestern Christian Advocate, 66 Washington
Street, Chicago, April 24, 1865.

Messrs. Blodgett, Upton and Others:
Gentlemen--Your note is before me. You know the time for the
preparation of that discourse was very brief. You are also aware,
doubtless, that though spoken from copious notes, much of it was
extemporized, and that I cannot reproduce those passages. But such as
it is, I place it in your hands, as my humble tribute to the name and the
virtues of our murdered President.
With much respect, gentlemen,
Yours truly,
T. M. Eddy.

MEMORIAL DISCOURSE.

"In the day of adversity consider."

It is the day of adversity. A great grief throws its shadow over heart and
hearth and home. There is such a sorrow as this land never knew before;
agony such as never until now wrung the heart of the nation. In
mansion and cottage, alike, do the people bow themselves.
We have been through the Red Sea of war, and across the weary, desert
marches of griefs and bereavements, but heretofore we have felt that
our leader was with us, and believed that surely as Moses was led by
the pillar of cloud and of fire, so did God lead him.
But now that leader is not. Slain, slain by the hand of the assassin,
murdered beside his wife! The costliest blood has been shed, the
clearest eye is closed, the strongest arm is nerveless--the Chief
Magistrate is no more. "The mighty man cries bitterly; the day is a day
of wrath, a day of trouble and distress, a day of wasteness and
desolation, a day of darkness and gloominess, a day of clouds and thick
darkness."
It is no mere official mourning which hangs its sad drapery everywhere.
It is not alone that a President of the Republic is, for the first time,
assassinated. No; there is a tender grief that characterizes the
bereavement of a loved friend, which shows there was something in
this man which grappled him to men's hearts as with hooks of steel.
But mourning the death of the Chief Magistrate, it becomes us to
review the elements of his career as a ruler, which have so endeared
him to loyal hearts.
If I were to sketch the model statesman, I would say he must have
mental breadth and clearness, incorruptible integrity, strength of will,
tireless patience, humanity, preserved from demoralizing weakness by
conscientious reverence for law, ardent love of country, and, regulating
all, a commanding sense of responsibility to God, the Judge of all.
These, though wrapped in seeming rustic garb, were found in Abraham

Lincoln. He had mental breadth and clearness. In spite of a defective
early education, he became a self-taught thinker, and later in life he
read widely and meditated profoundly, until he acquired a thorough
mental discipline. He possessed the power to comprehend a subject at
once in the aggregate and in its details. His eye swept a wide horizon
and descried clearly all within its circumference. He was a keen
logician,